Memphis A Little Place in the Wilderness

| Shrie Bradford

memphis.jpg

Rating: 5.4

Soft rock has its place. It’s good in old folks homes, in the moving/inspirational/epiphanic moments of romantic comedies… but soft rock doesn’t fit in as the bastard child of one surprisingly good band, Luxe, a somewhat unknown early collaboration between Torquil Campbell, Chris Dumont and James Shaw (of Metric), and Campbell’s newest involvement, Stars. Memphis formed during Dumont’s vacation in Campbell’s hometown of Vancouver, B.C. They got together, spilled their creative juices (eek) and Memphis was born.

Continue reading →

Psychic TV/PTV3 Hell is Invisible…Heaven is Here [Sweet Nothing/Cargo Records]

| Andrew Boe

61q8oawxgyl_aa240_-1.jpg

Rating: 7.5

For those uninitiated to the upside down world of Genesis P. Orridge and his truly bizarre existence, he has been an instrumental influence on experimental groups ever since he started the highly controversial Throbbing Gristle in England in the late 1970s. Just when that seminal group imploded in 1980, Genesis went on to begin another seminal act called Psychic TV. In their original form, they released two proper albums, the strange, creepy and excellent Force the Hand of Chance (1982) and Dreams Less Sweet (1983), before two of it’s members moved on to form yet another influential experimental band, Coil. Orridge has spent the remainder of his career assembling other versions of Psychic TV in addition to multiple other projects. Hell is Invisible… is the first studio album, however, that Psychic TV has recorded in over ten years, and the most recent version of the group is being dubbed Psychic TV/PTV3.

Continue reading →

Boddicker mp3s

| USOUNDS

caleb.jpg

Isaac Brock and Pinback love Caleb Boddicker. Kind of like a man loves a woman, but more serious. Here are a couple new tracks from his upcomming album Big Lionhearted and the Gallant Man set to be released October 2, 2007 on Banter Records and produced by Brian Deck.

Mississippi [mp3]
When I Go Out [mp3]

The Best of MySpace: The Upperhand

| USOUNDS

myspace.jpg

upperhand.jpg

MySpace: The Upperhand
Recommended if you like: Hands, Piano, Crocodile Relations

Usounds listens to all 196,345 bands on MySpace. Yeah, I know, you’d think there’d be more, right? Well, there will be, and we will listen to those too.

For our first installment of The Best of MySpace, we would like to direct your attention to Seattle, WA band The Upperhand. Band members Nate, Ricardo, Luke and Seth are mysterious to me as there is limited info on the band website upperhandband.com or MySpace page. However, my investigatory research concluded that Ricardo is probably not Mexican which may be disappointing to some.

Continue reading →